August 30, 2010

Orrick Adds Appellate Counsel From O’Melveny & Myers as Partner

Mark Davies, who until recently was a counsel in O’Melveny & Myers Supreme Court and appellate practice, has joined Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe’s Washington office as a partner.

Davies served as a member of the appellate staff in the Justice Department’s Civil Division from 1999 until 2006. In that position, Davies represented the Patent and Trademark Office, the Copyright Office, the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight, and other federal agencies.

He argued more than 25 cases in nine different appellate circuits, including the en banc appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Festo Corp. v. SMC Corp. which examined the relationship between the doctrine of equivalents and the doctrine of prosecution history estoppels; and the en banc appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in Southco Inc. v. Kanebridge Corp., which examined whether serial numbers were protected by copyrights.

Davies is also the author of “Patent Appeals: The Elements of Effective Advocacy in the Federal Circuit.”

In private practice, Davies primarily handles intellectual property appeals. At O'Melveny, he was part of a team that worked on the Supreme Court appeal in Morgan Stanley Capital Group Inc. v. Public Utility District No. 1 of Snohomish County, which questioned the validity of billions of dollars of long-term energy contracts entered into during the chaos in the California electricity markets eight years ago. The justices ultimately ruled in favor of O'Melveny's client, Morgan Stanley.

Last year, Davies represented Hynix in an appeal to the Federal Circuit in Hynix Semiconductor Inc. v. Rambus. In June, the appeals court ordered reargument in the case.

Davies, who is Orrick's first appellate lawyer in Washington, said he has been charged with growing the practice in D.C.